評論
打印
THE FEATHERED MASTERS OF THE AIR
長羽毛的飛行大師
Floyd Darrow
作者：弗洛伊德·丹諾
Think of it!
試想一下！
A frail little bird with no compass to guide it flies twice every year across two thousand four hundred miles of ocean.
沒有指南針指引的情況下，一只虛弱的小鳥每年飛過2400英里的海洋兩次。
Another bird travels twenty-two thousand miles every year.
另一只鳥每年飛行2萬2千英里。
Men have their airplanes, but Mr. Darrow tells you why the birds are still the Masters of the Air.
人類有自己的飛機，但達羅先生告訴你為什么鳥類仍然是空中的主人。
By October the migration of the birds to their winter homes in the southlands is well under way and has been going on for some time.
到10月份，這種鳥類已經開始遷徙到它們在南方的冬季棲息地，并且已經持續了一段時間。
In fact, some of these feathered masters of the air begin their southward jaunts as early as the middle of July.
事實上，一些這樣長著羽毛的“空中霸主”早在七月中旬就開始了它們的南下之旅。
When the nesting season is over and the young are able to care for themselves,
當筑巢季節結束，幼鳥能夠照顧自己時，
the old birds turn their thoughts toward their favorite winter resorts of the tropics.
老鳥就會把注意力轉向它們最喜歡的熱帶冬季度假勝地。
But why should birds thus migrate twice a year?
但為什么鳥類一年要遷徙兩次呢？
Why should they build their nests and rear their young in the north, and then, often long in advance of autumn’s chilly blasts, fly hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles to other homes?
為什么要在北方筑巢、養育后代，然后經常在秋季寒冷的寒風到來之前很久，飛往數百甚至數千英里以外的其他家園呢？
What guides them so truly on these long flights?
是什么在這些長途飛行中如此準確地指引？
These are questions which men have always asked, and yet we are but little nearer to their answers than when the quest began.
這些都是人們一直在問的問題，然而，與探索之初相比，我們離他們的答案僅一步之遙。
Mystery still surrounds the birds and their journeyings.
鳥類和其旅程仍然是個謎。
